West African rice farmers reconquering the local rice market

Rice in West Africa is booming!

• It has become the most consumed grain in West Africa.
• More than 5 million families of rice farmers cultivate 6 million hectares of rice.
• The demand for rice is growing by around 6% per year (from 11 million tonnes in 2008/2009 to 15 million tonnes in 2012/2013), with annual per capita consumption exceeding 100 kg in some countries.

Rice, an ultra-strategic commodity in West Africa!

• Current local production only covers c. 60% of regional demand.
• The other 40% of the needs are covered by imports from Asia.

West Africa is the world's largest rice importing region. 20% of the volumes traded on the world market are consumed in West Africa, even though the region has the potential to feed its population. However, the volumes produced in West Africa represent on average only 7% of world production, which is not enough to feed the population entirely. This increases the temptation for decision-makers to continue with food policies heavily based on the import of rice. It makes it easy to source homogeneous and well-cleaned rice. However, this dependence of West Africa on rice from elsewhere is problematic, because at the slightest difficulty the (Asian) producer countries will first ensure the food security of their own populations. This is evidenced by the reduction in the export of rice by Asian countries which was a trigger for the surge in prices in Africa in 2008.

Prospects for increased production for import are bleak, not only because populations in Asia continue to grow, but also because of the stagnation of agricultural land due to urbanisation and accelerated industrialisation in eastern countries. In the long term, West African rice food security can no longer depend on food imports. It will depend on the capacity of the region to develop its own rice cultivation - also considering the real threats of climate change as well as the local rice market.

Challenges

• Improve the quality of locally produced rice: West African rice is generally fresh and therefore more nutritious. However, consumers blame it for its many impurities (stones and rice husks), its poor appearance and its low rate of swelling.

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• Improve the availability of rice on the market. To this end, adapting rice production to climate change is crucial. Farmers can lose their production due to drought or flooding in their region. In addition, in irrigated plots where producers do not respect certain cultivation practices, they contribute very strongly to the production of nitrous gas, a gas which strongly contributes to the greenhouse effect and therefore to climate change. Rice is recognised as a crop that contributes the most to GHG emissions from agriculture. Women engaged in processing have so far used wood as their main source of energy, a resource that is becoming scarce with the effects of climate change. Proven technologies that reduce wood consumption exist and can be used.
• Control production costs: the lack of control of production costs by value chain actors, especially farmers, means that the price of rice produced locally is generally higher than that of imported rice. In addition, it limits the improvement of the producers' income.
• Strengthen business relations between actors of the rice value chains in the region: the bad business relations between actors of the value chains have resulted in a crisis of confidence. As long as the actors of the rice value chains do not cooperate well, it will be difficult for them to win back their market.
• Connect national and regional food security policymakers with those who implement them and those who are the primary beneficiaries (farmers and processors of national rice). An effective policy for the development of rice growing in West Africa should imperatively make the link between national food security and the profitability of rice growing at the level of family farms. However, governments often hardly recognise rice farmers’ organisations as full partners in rice sector developments, which can harm West African farmers’ growth. Their involvement in commercial transactions is in many cases limited by the government to selling their rice to a governmental organisation, at a fixed price. In the most serious cases, the good intentions of the government become factors of annoyance for farmers, or factors disrupting the market, damaging the farmers. One example being the import of rice by the government without considering local availability.
• Improve management within the rice value chains in the region: the situation presented in the context is often the result of weak consultation between the actors to create an environment that is helpful to the real development of West African rice value chains.
• Master statistical data to better meet market needs: farmers’ organisations have little control over their data and very little control over their statistics. As a result, they find themselves in a weak position during negotiations with decision-makers or other agricultural value chain actors. Mastering their statistics would allow them to be stronger in their arguments during negotiations.
• Make the rice sector attractive to young people

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Result

"I am very proud of Rikolto's achievements in the various countries of intervention. There remains a need for support for the development of different models for access to the farmers’ market, as is the case with institutional purchases in Burkina Faso and Mali. Support also remains necessary for the contribution to development of an integrated financing model for FEPROBA (Federation of producers of the Anambé basin) in Senegal."

Mame Birame Ndiaye‍

Rice programme officer / focal point for Senegal